“That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.” It turns out Nietzsche was right, at least when it comes to our adaptive stress response. Our bodies thrive on short-term acute “stress” exposure by ramping up growth and repair. This process, known as hormesis, may have powerful health and longevity benefits.* What is Hormesis? In […]
Hormesis: 3 Science-Backed Ways to Train Your Stress Response Read More »
“All things share the same breath—the beast, the tree, the man. The air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.” —Chief Seattle Keeping the Gretas in School As the Greta Thunberg movement of school strikes has put on display, the young generation around the world worries about their future in terms of ecological sustainability
Protopian Education One: Cultivating Ecological Relatedness Read More »
“Culture arises and unfolds in and as play”. — Johan Huizinga, Dutch historian 1872–1945 A Time Between Worlds Zak Stein (philosopher of education) has famously noted that our educational system is stuck in “a time between worlds”. It’s a time that has begun to shed the Modern educational frameworks, but no Protopian or Metamodern framework has
Education for Protopia: Why Play Is Vital to our Survival Read More »
The sexual evolution continues! This week I look at the controversy raging over the dramatic emergence of transsexual identity and gender fluidity, particularly among young people. I place it in the context of the stage transformations of sex and gender through history, and even get a little personal. I hope you enjoy the episode! –
Gender Fluidity: Fruitful and Fanatic Read More »
A global food crisis is looming, with high natural gas prices driving up the cost of ammonia fertilizer and the war in Ukraine threatening this year’s crops from both there and Russia. The consequences of mishandling this crisis could be dire. Research by complexity theorist Yaneer Bar-Yam suggests that high food prices are directly connected
Why digital society brings forth cynicism and anxiety—and what we can do about it. [A very French piece of theory: READERS BE WARNED.] Would you say that life has become more or less “civilized” as societies have evolved? Let us consider only the last few decades of cultural shifts to get a handle on this
[Digital] Madness and [Pornographic] Civilization Read More »
Vladimir Putin’s ill-conceived war on Ukraine reveals a hidden aspect of consciousness evolution: newly emerging stages are seen by existing stages as a regression. Putin the autocrat saw democracies as weak and depleted. So did Hitler and the Japanese before World War II. It’s an old pattern that we can trace back to the warriors
Emergence Appears as Regression and Decadence – The developmental delusion we all share Read More »
There are still four tickets left for the advanced course on metamodernism starting April 10. The course is an intense deep-dive reserved for just 12 participants interested in a more intimate experience with Emil Ejner Friis as your teacher. This will be the last time Emil does this course this year. Here’s what he has
Advanced Course on Metamodernism Starting April 10 Read More »
In times of war, issues of ethnic and national identity overshadow all considerations of class. We are thereby forgetting a crucial question: Which class relations should we aspire towards? [Note: As the war in Ukraine broke out, I was in the process of writing a series of weekly articles that explore visions of societal development
Is Protopia a Classless Society? Read More »
I’ve received many thoughtful and heartfelt comments on the war in Ukraine from my listeners. In this episode, I share their insights and add a few of my own. 0:42 – How the stages of consciousness are arising “simultaneously”. 5:34 – The shocking strangeness of premodernity and its challenge to modern culture. 15:13 – “The
